Tag: photoblog

Bread of life.

Focaccia & ciabatta.

Some friends and I signed up for today’s bread baking class at the culinary center at Whole Foods downtown.  I’ve been looking forward to it.  The class was hands-on, showing how to make focaccia and ciabatta bread, both of which I LOVE.

I love to  bake, and have baked bread before, but never these Italian breads.   I enjoyed the class.  The instructor taught us several techniques and tips that I can’t wait to try on some of the other breads I’ve made (especially my baguettes – which usually end up with too thick of a crust).  We also learned how to make a starter for the dough, and brought that home for the next loaves I’ll make.

I thought it was interesting that you make both breads out of the same dough, just prepared differently — you add lots of olive oil to the focaccia – before and after you bake it, and sprinkle with rosemary and salt.

I had fun, and the breads turned out great!  The shot above is a picture of the final product.  Yummy!

My year.

Year of the dragon.

Today is Chinese New Year’s Day.   2012 is the Year of the Dragon.  The dragon symbolizes power and good fortune.  Of all the 12 Chinese zodiac animals, the dragon is the mythical one, and therefore the most powerful & mysterious.

I was born in a Year of the Dragon.   I am a dragon.   I hereby declare 2012 to be my year.

Happy New Year!

Dinner and a movie.

Best movie theater. Ever.

We rarely go out to a movie, choosing instead to watch them at home on the DVR.  When we do go out, we go to the Alamo Drafthouse, where we can eat dinner and have a few drinks while watching the movie.

Last night, we saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.   It’s a book that I have started reading several times, but have yet to finish.  Ususally I don’t want to see a movie until I’ve read the book it’s based on.  But for this one, I was willing to bend the rule.  Monte has read several of the books in this series, ravenously.  So, he was eager to see it.

** Spoiler Alert **

I liked the movie, it has a very complicated story line and set of characters.  I’m all for realism and all, but ….. I have to say that I just can’t appreciate the “art” associated with acting out a rape scene in a movie.  Yeah.  I guess I’m just old school – and getting older school it seems.

I think, tonight, catching up on episodes of season 1 of Downton Abbey is much more my speed.  🙂

I love these.

Easy smoothie.

I recently browsed back through my blog posts for the last month or so.  I guess it’s been a long time since I’ve posted any “photographic” or artistic images — more posts about what I’m doing from day to day.   I do love looking for beautiful things to photograph.  But, I suppose that I’ve been less focused on that lately.  That’s ok – my life is full of both the beautiful and the mundane 🙂  so, you get a little of both here on sheila365.

Speaking of the mundane… I thought I’d share something that I enjoy with you.  A few years ago my sister, Noreen, introduced me to a really easy to make smoothie.  And I think it’s delicious.  I have been making myself one every morning for the last several weeks.  Try it, you’ll like it 🙂

Sheila365 Smoothie

1 cup (8 oz) V8 V-Fusion juice
1/2 to 1 cup frozen fruit

Pick the juice flavor and fruit you like best.  Pour juice in blender, add frozen fruit and blend til smooth.  That’s it.  The first time you make it, you’ll have to play around a bit to find the fruit-to-juice ratio that works best with your blender.  I find that it works perfect if I put in only enough fruit to stay below the level of the liquid… but if you add too much fruit, and your blender gets a bit bogged down, just add a little bit more liquid.

I avoid any diet drinks with aspartame, but found that I do prefer the V8 V-fusion Light version of the juice.  The regular version is just too sweet for me.  The Light version contains sucralose, though, so if you don’t want any of that, stick with the regular.

An added bonus:  8 oz of V8 V-fusion juice contains 1 serving of vegetable and 1 serving of fruit.

Releasing my inner artiste.

A Sheila original (sort of).

Tonight Sue & I went to an art studio called Painting with a Twist.  They hold a painting class every night where everyone in the studio paints the same picture.   Oh, and you can bring your own wine and snacks to help get the creative juices flowing (that’s the twist part).  You can choose which session you want to attend by checking out their calendar and signing up ahead of time.  They have studios in many cities, check out their main website if you’re interested.  Tonight’s piece is called Moonlit Cherry Blossoms.

I know friends that have tried it, but this was my first time.  It was FUN!  The pic above is one I took of my painting after I got it home.  I look forward to trying this again.

Look out people, ARTIST COMIN’ THROUGH!!  😀

Is all this really necessary?

eFitness.

It’s time.  I’m not saying it was a resolution or anything, since I’m so bad at sticking to resolutions, but just a change.  I don’t know if i can keep it up, but i sure hope i can.

TIme to get in shape.

It’s SO hard for me to carve time out of my day to exercise.   I’ve tried so many times over the years, to fight my calendar for time to myself.  My calendar always wins.   Getting up for calls at 5 and 6 AM…. working late in the night.  I’ve used that as an excuse for way too long.

It’s time, dammit.  I’m worth it.

So, I’m trying.   Wish me luck.  I’ll need it.

I have reached out to Amazon.com for a little help.  I bought a new heart rate monitor watch and transmitter, and a neat little gadget that will transfer the data off the watch and upload it for tracking.  No, it’s not necessary, but it helps incent me.   And I need all the help I can get. 🙂

 

A reminder.

Winter sun setting.

My Uncle Bill passed away this morning – 1 month since his brother died, and less than 2 months since he learned that he had cancer.   My heart goes out to my aunt and my cousins who have had their world turned upside down so quickly.  He is loved and missed terribly by his family.

It is startling to realize how quickly our lives can be taken out of our hands.   And that as much as I fret about things day to day, I really don’t have any control at all.   I guess what’s important is that we get the most out of each day we have.

The shot above is of the sun dropping low in the sky on a crisp winter day.  The tree in the foreground has lost its leaves, but you can already see the buds along the branches getting ready to pop in a month or so.   Life goes on….

Happy January 14th!

Soon to be dinner.

We went to dinner at Rob & Jen’s tonight.  Their friend, Matt, who we met at their wedding, was visiting from out of town.  Rob baked up a delicious batch of stuffed lobster.  And, we were treated to post-dinner fireworks, as is the custom on Zyle Road. 🙂  I guess you could say we were celebrating January 14th!

After dinner show.

 

Spring rolls in Winter.

Prep.

The cedar pollen is high in Central Texas.  Which means I’ll be avoiding going outside for extended periods of time.  Unfortunately, that means I can’t lend a hand with the yardwork.  I used to go outside regardless, and dig in the dirt, trim brush and help with picking up leaves.  But then I would be pretty much a sneezing, coughing, itching mess, clinging to a box of kleenex all week.  So I’m hanging indoors this weekend.  Monte cleared the front yard of leaves yesterday, and it looks great.
Today he is cutting down several very tall cedars along the back fenceline that have died from the last couple of droughts.

So, since I’m not out there helping, i’ll feed him instead 🙂

Spring rolls are not your typical lumberjack meal… but that’s what he got for lunch today anyway.   The shot above is of what went into them (minus the noodles and rice paper wrap), and the shot below is of how they turned out.   Hopefully they’ll tide him over til dinner.

Lunch is served.

You don’t so much need a recipe as you do a shopping list.

Spring Rolls

– Rice paper wrappers (soak in warm water for about 5 seconds right before preparing the spring roll to soften)
– Rice vermicelli (boiled up beforehand, I use a small amount on each one)
– Veggies of choice sliced very thin (I like cucumbers, carrots, lettuce)
– Cilantro (fresh, chopped up)
– Shrimp (cook it beforehand, you can also use chicken or beef or whatever you like)
– Peanut sauce (for dipping)

Cut everything up ahead of time, cook your meat, boil the noodles.  Soften a rice paper wrapper (one at a time).  Put a little of each in the center of the circular wrapper.  Fold down the top edge and fold up the bottom edge, and roll as snugly as you can.  Repeat until you can’t eat anymore.

Enjoy!

Will this be the year?

Ruh-roh.

I love my car – though it has been showing signs of wear and tear for the last few years.  I bought it new in 1997, which means it’s 15 years old this year, with about 85K miles.  My plan has been to drive it til it falls apart.   Question is, will this year be the year it falls apart?

The engine light came on yesterday and has stayed on, which freaked me out a bit since it has not done that before the manual says to stop the car and not drive it anymore when that light comes on.

I called the dealer, where I usually take it.  But given that it’s in its golden years, that may be a little bit of overkill.   They said they could take a look at it, but it would cost 1 hour of labor to just do that.  The nice guy on the phone did say that 99% of the reasons the light comes on are not catastrophic, probably emissions related.

Monte suggested taking it to AutoZone, as they will come out to the parking lot and read the code off the car’s computer for free.   What a concept!  Keep that in mind next time this happens to you.  I drove over today and in about 10 seconds they told me it was a code indicating that the exhaust mix is out of whack.

Whew.  Ok, so I just need to get that fixed up to pass my next emissions inspection.  I guess this is not the end of the road yet.   Though, i must say it is a bit annoying when my sunroof opens on its own when it’s raining  🙂  so maybe the end of the road is not too far away….  Stay tuned.

Leaf me alone!

Before and After.

The weather has been beautiful during the past week.  Highs in the 60’s, even creeping into the 70’s, clear skies.  And, it’s been breezy, the winds started out of the north and then slipped back into the normal southerlies.  The wind has almost emptied the red oak of its leaves.   The picture on the left was taken last Saturday, the one on the right today.   Monte’s already planning his leaf collection strategy for this year.  We are getting off easy, though.   About half the leaves uncharacteristically fell in the Summer and the Fall, due to the drought, and they are long gone.   Half of the rest blew down the street over the last few days 🙂 .

Have a great weekend!

 

Not exactly street legal.

1926 Model T

Our friend, Dan, has a car problem.  He has been building a modified old timey roadster from the ground up for the last few years.  It’s not done yet, but he just bought a working 1926 Model T and had it shipped down here on a truck.   Tonight we went over to Dan & Lynn’s house for dinner and to see the car, and to hopefully get a ride around the block in a genuine Tin Lizzy.

However, when we walked into his garage, this is what we saw.  He had already put it up on blocks and taken it apart to spiff things up.    So, for now this photo will have to do, and our ride will have to wait a bit.

P.S.  I especially enjoyed the after dinner discussion Monte and Dan were having about a wooden hygrometer (measures humidity in the air) that he had just built.  Dan couldn’t understand why Monte would make one out of wood when he had a perfectly good electronic hygrometer already.  Ironic, eh?  (i.e., reference photo above)  🙂

Tea for me.

Sleepy time.

I bought a couple of cool “tipping” teacups that I ran across while browsing for gifts on the web.   They make steeping loose-leaf tea one cup at a time very easy and quick.  I had to, of course, get one for myself.  🙂  Then I had to find some loose-leaf tea to try out.

I am a 2-3 cup-a-day coffee drinker – have been for years.  But, i was born a tea drinker.   My Irish father drank a cup of tea at breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.   So, I drank it as a kid, too, but very infrequently since then.

I’ve never tried loose-leaf tea, but have heard about how much more flavorful it is than tea-bag tea.  I was eager to find loose-leaf versions of some of my favorite brews:  Irish Breakfast, Earl Grey and Chamomile.  I’m lucky to live in Austin for lots of reasons, but one of them is the local tea-shop called The Steeping Room, which is only about 5 minutes from my house.  I popped over there and stocked up.

The picture above is of the before-bedtime blend called Perfect Night.  It’s a mix of chamomile, rose, rose hips, lavender and pink peppercorns.     I had some tonight and it was delicious.

I’ve also tried the breakfast tea and earl grey black teas — all amazingly flavorful.  I think i’m hooked.

A pair of pears.

Mom sent us a gift box of Washington State pears and apples.  Yum!

Still life.

I’m not so good at New Year’s resolutions.  I make them, but really only for myself.  I suppose the important thing is that I will strive to make 2012 a better year for me — body, mind and soul — and hopefully leave my little corner of the world better than I found it along the way.  I wish the same for you.